Legal Profession

News about Legal Profession, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jul. 30, 2015

Editorial condemns China's crackdown on more than 200 lawyers and associates, saying it deeply undermines any claims government has made toward improving the rule of law; argues that effort is obvious attempt to crush 'rights defense' movement under which lawyers have been attempting to defend individual rights amid corrupt legal system; argues that legal reform will be necessary before nation can assume true leadership position in world. MORE

Jul. 24, 2015

Federal appeals court rules that New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom could owe overtime pay to contract lawyer who performed nonlegal work; decision could increase costs for firms that hire temporary lawyers. MORE

Jul. 23, 2015

Chinese lawyers say that Chinese government has mounted broad crackdown on human rights lawyers that is one of most withering assaults on profession in decades; over 200 lawyers have been detained, accused of subversion and of attacking Communist Party; despite campaign, which is meant to diminish so-called rights defense movement, many lawyers refuse to back down, pointing to how significantly Chinese society has changed. MORE

Jul. 13, 2015

Brooklyn Law School will begin offering 15 percent tuition repayments to graduates who fail to find full-time jobs within nine months of graduation; program is meant to address daunting competition and depressed job market that have coincided with steep drop off in enrollment. MORE

Jul. 12, 2015

Chinese lawyer Zhou Shifeng and at least four other colleagues from law firm specializing in rights cases have been detained in Beijing and accused of running criminal syndicate to smear Communist Party; experts say accusations are part of high-profile effort by Pres Xi Jinping's government to discredit rights lawyers and activists. MORE

Jun. 17, 2015

Op-Ed article by author Theresa Amato observes period of serious underemployment in the legal profession has coincided with unconscionable dearth of legal services for the poor nationwide; holds trends present opportunity to address 'justice gap' and put more lawyers to work in cases where representation truly matters; calls on law schools and government to expand programs to help pay tuition for lawyers who intend to go into public service. MORE

Jun. 8, 2015

Rachel L Swarns The Working Life column profiles Zahra Cheema, observant Muslim lawyer who wears hijab and other traditional religious clothing at work; notes Cheema, who has encountered professional obstacles because of her garb, has opened her own firm specializing in immigration and family law. MORE

Jun. 5, 2015

New York State Supreme Court panel approves application of Cesar Vargas to bar association; Mexican-born New Yorker is first immigrant in state without legal status to be approved to work as lawyer. MORE

May. 12, 2015

A study published this week found that prestigious jobs were not linked to more well-being and that public-service work correlated with less alcohol consumption. MORE

May. 6, 2015

New York State will adopt standard bar examination developed by National Conference of Bar Examiners, which will give lawyers flexibility to move and practice in other states; 15 states already use test but New York is so far the largest; in addition to standard exam, new plan will require lawyers to take online course and pass short multiple-choice test on state-specific law before becoming licensed in New York. MORE

May. 3, 2015

Geller Law Group has found success while pursuing its founding goal of allowing partners to be fully engaged as parents; six-woman firm aims to demonstrate that women lawyers can truly 'have it all' in a field that has often penalized them for becoming mothers; mere 16.5 percent of law partners in 2013 were women, despite graduating from law school in roughly equal numbers with men. MORE

Apr. 27, 2015

Study by Deborah J Merritt, Ohio State University law professor, finds that law school class of 2010, which was dealt hardship by 2008 economic collapse, has not recovered from sour job market; finds 20 percent of graduates have jobs that do not require law license and only 40 percent are working in firms; notes their student debt averages from $77,364 from public institutions to $112,007 from private schools. MORE

Apr. 17, 2015

Jeffrey D Friedlander, lawyer for New York City's Law Dept since 1970, will retire in June 2015; has worked for 13 corporation counsels under seven mayors and left his mark on human rights and anti-apartheid legislation, as well as smaller cases. MORE

Apr. 12, 2015

No major law firms have filed briefs against same-sex marriage for cases before Supreme Court; interviews with lawyers and law professors suggest many at big firms view opposition to same-sex marriage as bigotry, and also believe defending traditional marriage will negatively impact acquisition of new lawyers and clients. MORE

Apr. 1, 2015

Steven Davidoff Solomon Deal Professor investigates whether it is a good time to apply to law school, given prospect of rebound following lowest level of enrollment in decades; observes that some say downturn is permanent correction, while new studies suggest chance of vigorous future, especially at higher end of the market. MORE

Mar. 27, 2015

Citigroup report says most big American law firm's unwillingness to publicly discuss hacker attacks and dearth of reporting requirements makes it impossible to tell if cyberattacks are on the rise; warns on protecting crucial business data. MORE

Mar. 22, 2015

Vocations column features interview with Obrea Poindexter, lawyer at Morrison & Foerster in Washington. MORE

Mar. 20, 2015

Law school deans and some state legal establishments are among those scrutinizing traditional bar exam, exploring other options for law school graduates than a single written test as only portal to legal profession. MORE

Mar. 6, 2015

American multinational companies are turning tables on lawyers suing them for human rights abuses abroad; lawyer Terrence Collingsworth, who has accused companies doing business in Colombia of mistreating workers, is being sued for libel by coal producer Drummond, one of his targets; numerous controversies involving Collingsworth and other lawyers have cast shadow over field and allowed firms to launch counterattacks. MORE

Feb. 24, 2015

Wall Street banks and law firms are putting together legal group that will be affiliated with banking industry's main forum for sharing information about online threats. MORE

Feb. 16, 2015

Lawyers who have helped bring down big Wall Street targets are leaving public service for private law firms, but prosecutors say hungry talent is filling the gap. MORE

Feb. 12, 2015

In the coming weeks, a private investigator in New York is expected to plead guilty to charges of paying a so-called hacker-for-hire firm to steal email passwords and credentials. MORE

Feb. 1, 2015

News Analysis; study conducted by Maya Sen and Adam Bonica, of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Stanford, respectively, has found that judges are generally more conservative than average lawyer; while Sen and Bonica attribute trend to way politics shapes judiciary, some skeptics say that it may be that lawyers in general are far more liberal than in population at large. MORE

Dec. 19, 2014

Burgeoning industry matches plaintiffs’ lawyers with mostly Democratic attorneys general to sue companies, setting off an intense competition among trial lawyers and lobbyists to influence these officials; private lawyers, while trolling for contracts, have also donated tens of thousands of dollars to attorneys general campaigns; emails and lawyer contracts obtained by New York Times from attorneys general in 15 states show how alliances have jumbled roles in legal profession (Series: Courting Favor). MORE

Dec. 13, 2014

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's spokesman confirms that Silver is earning money from legal fees as well as wages from personal-injury law firm Weitz & Luxenberg; attention to Silver’s outside income comes as Gov Andrew M Cuomo looks to enact far more stringent requirements on extralegislative sources of income, due to potential conflicts of interest. MORE

Dec. 13, 2014

James B Stewart Common Sense column observes that John J Altorelli, so-called 'rainmaker' at once prestigious law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, has filed for personal bankruptcy; reflects on how Altorelli's rise and fall, and collapse of the firm, lay bare increasingly aggressive competition for lucrative clients that has afflicted even highest ranks of legal profession. MORE

Dec. 4, 2014

Doug Hand, lawyer to several prominent fashion brands in New York City, maintains his own stylish look even as he advises those in the glamor industry. MORE

Nov. 17, 2014

Alan M Dershowitz takes on Eliot Spitzer, his former Harvard Law School student, at a New York synagogue during a legal education event, staged as a mock trial, over actions of biblical figure Abraham; Dershowitz acted as defense attorney and Spitzer as prosecutor. MORE

Nov. 8, 2014

Deborah N Misir, Long Island lawyer who is in her sixth month of high-risk pregnancy, asks that trial for her client Vincent Tabone be postponed because it is set for about two months before her due date; Tabone is former vice chairman of Queens Republican Party who faces retrial on Jan 5, 2015, in corruption case; Misir says doctors told her to avoid stress and pressure for the remainder of her pregnancy. MORE

Oct. 27, 2014

United States attorney's office for Southern District of New York throws party to celebrate its 225th birthday, with large crowd of alumni invoking some of New York's most storied legal history and culture; Southern District has long been jokingly referred to as Sovereign District, nod to its pre-eminence among nation’s prosecutors’ offices, its independence from Washington and its willingness to jockey for cases with other districts. MORE

Sep. 27, 2014

Michael Wilson Crime Scene column; Angel Gutierrez, a process server in the Bronx, finds humor in his work and has been adding it to his stand-up-comedy routine for the past 20 years. MORE

Sep. 5, 2014

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a surprise speaker at third day of monthlong training for inaugural class of Immigrant Justice Corps; corps seeks to address dearth of qualified lawyers to represent immigrants facing deportation and other legal problems. MORE

Aug. 8, 2014

Man posing as lawyer Stephen G Dickerman is arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on charges of identity theft and making fraudulent statements; man has represented clients in at least 12 federal lawsuits, yet no one, not even his fiancee, is sure of who he really is. MORE

Aug. 3, 2014

Notion of two-year law schools is gaining growing number of supporters, even at the American Bar Association; proponents recommend that instead of having a third year of school, students take a year of accumulating skill-based experience at a law school or elsewhere. MORE

Aug. 3, 2014

Some law schools are broadening their curriculum and pushing their students to better understand business and technology so that they can advise entrepreneurs in start-ups and new business fields. MORE

Aug. 3, 2014

Handful of states, including California, Virginia, Vermont and Washington, allow apprenticeships under a lawyer in lieu of pursuing traditional law school degree as prerequisite to taking bar and practicing as licensed lawyer; supporters say without crippling debt from law school, such lawyers are free from chasing big paychecks with corporations and can work in non-profit and community law. MORE

Jul. 24, 2014

Editorial opposes Bureau of Prisons policy that allows government to monitor and read email messages to and from inmates, particularly messages between inmates and their lawyers; holds that policy violates attorney-client privilege; calls for Justice Department to change policy, or, barring that, for individual judges to oppose it. MORE

Jul. 23, 2014

Federal prosecutors across the country have begun reading emails sent from prisoners to their lawyers, potentially using inmates' own words against them; practice has been wholly embraced in Brooklyn, where prosecutors have said they intend to read such emails in almost every case; issue has spurred court battles over whether inmates have a right to confidential email communications with their lawyers. MORE

Jun. 7, 2014

Obama administration says it is starting a program to deal with the soaring number of unaccompanied minors illegally crossing the border from Mexico; under plan, federal government will issue $2 million in grants to enroll about 100 lawyers and paralegals to represent immigrant children making their way through the immigration court system. MORE

Jun. 1, 2014

Chuck Klosterman The Ethicist column answers questions about eating meat and conforming to standards of personal appearance to best represent a client as a lawyer. MORE

May. 2, 2014

Lawyer Stanley L Cohen appears in Federal District Court in Manhattan as a defendant in one case and the more traditional role of representing a client in another case; Cohen enters contingent guilty plea to two counts for failing to file tax returns, then attends hearing to determine whether terrorism suspect Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, still wishes to have Cohen represent him. MORE

Apr. 16, 2014

Editorial highlights article by law Prof Stephen Gillers to be published in New York University's Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, which outlines flaws in New York's process for dealing with lawyer misconduct; expresses concern about the overall lack of transparency in the system; contends change is necessary if New Yorkers are to have confidence in the lawyers who represent them. MORE

Apr. 14, 2014

Stanley L Cohen, a prominent lawyer who has represented Lower East Side squatters, political activists and terrorism suspects, announces plan to plead guilty to a charge of impeding the Internal Revenue Service; says he expects to be sentenced to prison and to lose his law license. MORE

Apr. 14, 2014

Litigation arising from brain injuries in the NFL has prompted George Washington University’s law school to devote a course to the legal implications of traumatic brain injuries. MORE

Apr. 5, 2014

James B Stewart Common Sense column; Brooklyn Law School says it plans to cut tuition and abandon what has become widespread obsession with climbing ladder of national law school rankings; unusually bold steps are part of effort to confront crisis many institutions are facing in legal education. MORE

Mar. 26, 2014

Large American corporations are pressing their law firms to increase cybersecurity to deter hackers from gaining access to confidential information. MORE

Mar. 21, 2014

Lawrence E Walsh, former federal judge and mainstay of the American legal establishment, dies at age 102; as an independent counsel, Walsh exposed lawbreaking in the Reagan administration that gave rise to the Iran-contra scandal. MORE

Mar. 18, 2014

JPMorgan Chase work force re-entry program for women is one of several small but growing programs that help highly educated and accomplished women return to jobs they left in finance and at law firms to care for children or aging parents. MORE

Feb. 22, 2014

Defense team at Manhattan terrorism trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, will include transgender lawyer Zoe J Dolan; Dolan says she has not raised this aspect of her personal life with Abu Ghaith or any other client, but says she believes that her background helps her better represent clients, particularly those who have lived on the margins. MORE

Feb. 16, 2014

Top-secret document obtained by Edward J Snowden shows that an American law firm representing Indonesian government in trade disputes with United States was monitored by Australia, which offered to share information with National Security Agency; disclosure is of interest because US lawyers with clients overseas have expressed concern that their confidential communications could be compromised by such surveillance. MORE

A lawyer for Mr. Baumblit responded to questions from The Times’s Kim Barker about his client and Back on Track, a company that runs three-quarter homes. The transitional homes provide housing for the mentally ill, homeless and addicts.

A lawyer for Mr. Baumblit responded to questions from The Times’s Kim Barker about his client and Back on Track, a company that runs three-quarter homes. The transitional homes provide housing for the mentally ill, homeless and addicts.